technology

4 part SAMR Model to Analyse Gamification

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SAMR for Gamification Examples 4 part SAMR Model to Analyse Gamification

I love coming up with new models and frameworks, I find them really handy and hope that when I share them that others do as well. However, I am also a great believer in not reinventing the wheel!

Recently I happened to see a comment from one of my favourite people on Twitter, Alice Keeler, that mentioned something called the SAMR model. Now, knowing that Alice is an awesome thought leader in the education space, I knew this was probably a model I wanted to look up – and I was right.

What is SAMR?

SAMR stands for Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, Redefinition. It is a model that is used in education to analyse and validate the potential of new technology in the classroom.  They idea is that you put the new technology in question, into one of these four categories. Read More ...

Gamification: Why Badges can be Bad – Really Bad

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487145 79884958 Gamification Why Badges can be Bad 8211 Really Bad

Last week I got to go to the Digital Shoreditch Play event. It was a wonderful day, listening to games developers, designers, experts and Gamification gurus all with amazing tales to tell from the coal face of the industry.

The audience there were of similar calibre , most being experts in their respective fields. It was talking to a few of these people that really got me thinking. You see, within certain circles, Gamification is almost a swear word. After a little digging I discovered what the real issue was. You see I thought it was some kind of clique that was in place. “Games are ours, business can’t have them”. But actually it was more than that. It was born of a deeper understanding of the psychology of what is know as “extrinsic rewards for intrinsic motivation”. Their objection was not to the use of gamification, but to the generalized poorly conceived usage that is being used and promoted by many. Read More ...

Don’t Love Games? Step Away From the Gamification

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New dice Don 8217 t Love Games Step Away From the Gamification

Games. I love them. Board games, card games, video games and anything else you can put the word games after. I play them, I write about them, I think about them, I dream about them and from time to time I even try my hand at making them (http://www.fuzzyd.co.uk/robbers). So what does this have to do with such a business orientated subject as Gamification. One needs to be a savy expert to be able to speak on such highbrow topics – not a games loving lout?

Well Mr suit, that’s where I think you are dead wrong. Jesse Schell in his excellent “The Art of Games Design: A Book of Lenses” asks a simple question. “Do I love my Project”. He goes on to state “If the creators of a game do not love it, the game will surely fail”. So I ask you. If you do not love games, dream about them and want to play them all day every day – how can you talk about gamification with any conviction, let alone make decisions about it’s implementation or design? As horrible as the name may be, gamification contains a key word. Gam(e). Whether you like it or not, implementing gamification is implementing at least some elements that come from games. Read More ...

Super Nanny and the Gamification of a Generation

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20120211 085538 Super Nanny and the Gamification of a Generation

Whilst I continue my quest to write a bit more about the less obvious dynamics and mechanics of Gamification, a little thought occurred.

In 2004 a lovely lady by the name of Jo Frost appeared on our televisions in a program called Super Nanny. For those who didn’t see it (it is still showing in the US I think), basically Miss Frost would go into a family who had “problem” children and work out how best to bring them back under control. Of course this being the Naughties, smacking is a big no no, so she introduced the world to two concepts. The Reward Chart and the Naughty Step. Whilst these were not new ideas, it was the first time many people had seen them. Read More ...

The Gamification of Life

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Nappy game The Gamification of Life

Okay, okay, I know this blog is getting a bit Gamification heavy AND I also promised the next post would be a very serious one that went into more detail about non reward like gamification, but it isn’t – yet – so there.

The reason for this blog? Well, it is currently about 3am and I have just changed my daughters nappy whilst trying to feed her. I set myself the challenge to change her, in her Moses basket, whilst feeding her. I basically gamified the process to make it more entertaining to my sleep deprived brain. However, it got me to thinking. Whenever people talk about gamification, it is normally related to some kind of technology based solution. Make it into a video game, add rewards and achievements to their online profile, that sort of thing. Read More ...